Characters per reign-year

Characters divided by the length of the reign in years — the density of the record.

205,623highest: Injong, per year

Key point

Turns the commonplace that the record thins toward the end into a number. The tenfold drop after Jeongjo should be read as a change in recording practice, not as a quieter century.

Formula: Characters / reign length in years, where years = (JDN of last dated article − JDN of first + 1) / 365.2422 — the same rule before and after the 1896 switch to the solar calendar. Reign months = calendar months touched by that span (lunar months incl. leap months to Dec 1895, solar months from Jan 1896).
How to read it: Eleven reigns exceed 100,000 a year, among them Sejong, Seongjong, Jungjong, Seonjo and Jeongjo (and the one- to three-year reigns of Injong, Yejong, Munjong and Danjong); Sukjong is near 72,000. After Jeongjo the density collapses to 10–15 thousand under Heonjong and Cheoljong.
Caveats: Reign length is measured from the first to the last dated article, which may differ slightly from the dates of accession and death.

Reliability card: exactExact count — read straight from the source XML

All 33 editions; muted color marks revised, supplemented, supplement-and-corrections and second-draft editions.

Edition	Articles	Dated articles	Characters	Reign (months)	Articles/year	Characters/year	Median length	Historians' comments	Share with historians' comments	Empty months
Veritable Records of King Taejo	2,387	2,251	193,643	81	346	29,767	23	0	0.0%	0
Veritable Records of King Jeongjong	626	624	64,861	24	325	33,795	25	1	0.2%	0
Veritable Records of King Taejong	10,338	10,336	1,061,570	222	578	59,340	40	2	0.0%	2
Veritable Records of King Sejong	32,281	30,948	3,887,345	391	980	123,142	40	0	0.0%	0
Veritable Records of King Munjong	2,672	2,670	399,503	32	1,086	162,489	59	0	0.0%	5
Veritable Records of King Danjong	2,547	2,532	372,737	40	805	118,485	61	5	0.2%	0
Veritable Records of King Sejo	10,901	10,806	1,231,199	166	807	91,960	52	13	0.1%	1
Veritable Records of King Yejong	1,504	1,501	236,144	17	1,130	177,835	67	2	0.1%	0
Veritable Records of King Seongjong	32,444	32,438	4,089,839	311	1,295	163,219	45	665	2.0%	0
Daily Records of Yeonsangun	12,010	12,006	1,385,101	146	1,030	118,783	41	40	0.3%	0
Veritable Records of King Jungjong	39,660	39,658	5,886,859	474	1,035	153,614	52	1,346	3.1%	0
Veritable Records of King Injong	672	667	119,351	8	1,149	205,623	72	56	7.4%	0
Veritable Records of King Myeongjong	15,045	15,042	1,875,795	272	685	85,373	36	1,455	8.3%	0
Veritable Records of King Seonjo	26,716	26,679	4,644,626	503	657	114,452	82	717	2.6%	65
Revised Veritable Records of King Seonjo	1,874	1,867	449,581	503	46	11,078	88	1	0.1%	71
Daily Records of Gwanghaegun, second draft	22,121	22,121	2,739,912	187	1,465	181,423	62	211	0.9%	0
Daily Records of Gwanghaegun, final draft	18,805	18,805	2,244,156	187	1,245	148,597	60	0	0.0%	0
Veritable Records of King Injo	16,047	16,041	2,218,990	325	613	84,742	61	170	1.0%	0
Veritable Records of King Hyojong	5,433	5,427	924,579	125	541	92,166	42	10	0.2%	0
Veritable Records of King Hyeonjong	9,296	9,291	1,030,951	189	610	67,651	44	220	2.3%	0
Supplemented Veritable Records of King Hyeonjong	10,506	10,502	1,382,412	189	689	90,714	43	48	0.5%	0
Veritable Records of King Sukjong	24,209	24,205	3,311,227	568	528	72,246	42	233	1.0%	0
Supplement and Corrections to the Veritable Records of King Sukjong	729	726	213,533	568	16	4,663	168	148	20.2%	237
Veritable Records of King Gyeongjong	2,744	2,740	354,711	54	641	82,995	39	41	1.5%	0
Revised Veritable Records of King Gyeongjong	431	431	119,405	57	95	26,225	102	6	1.4%	4
Veritable Records of King Yeongjo	36,732	36,725	3,868,758	639	713	75,074	41	483	1.3%	0
Veritable Records of King Jeongjo	17,682	17,670	3,344,617	302	726	137,335	52	0	0.0%	0
Veritable Records of King Sunjo	15,530	15,520	1,437,468	425	452	41,881	18	0	0.0%	0
Veritable Records of King Heonjong	3,987	3,979	186,539	182	272	12,766	13	0	0.0%	0
Veritable Records of King Cheoljong	5,772	5,764	208,899	180	398	14,434	13	0	0.0%	0
Veritable Records of King Gojong	27,940	27,939	2,749,115	535	642	63,190	33	0	0.0%	0
Veritable Records of King Sunjong	1,388	1,386	111,348	38	445	35,737	38	0	0.0%	0
Veritable Records of King Sunjong, appendix	3,472	3,472	135,765	216	194	7,603	25	0	0.0%	23

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